Remembering saxophonist Eric Pollard

Thanks to Tom Gibb for drawing my attention to an amusing item about the late tenor sax player Eric Pollard. It's from a book by John and Joyce Carlson: South Shields From Old Photographs (still available from quality bookshops or online).

Eric was perhaps the first jazz tenor sax player I heard on South Tyneside. He was a regular at the Bungalow Jazz Club in South Shields as well as being a part of the Ronnie Callaghan Octet - a band that reached the final of the 1952 edition of the prestigious  Melody Maker Dance Band Contest after winning the local heat at the Majestic Ballroom in South Shields.

In later years he played in the Tyne Valley Stompers and at the Porthole in North Shields with the Jazz Esquires who, at the time, were led by Joe McMullen.

In the the late 1940s/early 1950s he was playing with a band at South Shields' Hedworth Hall - one of the town's most popular dance venues.

In the book Eric, who died some years ago, recalls that, during the course of a solo, a drunk came up and poured some beer into the bell of his sax. After Eric had finished his solo, he stood up and poured the beer back over the drunk's head to a round of applause from the band. Lance

In the photo, taken from the book, Eric is 16 year old.